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iPad User Guide

Charge the iPad battery

iPad has an internal, lithium-ion rechargeable battery. Lithium-ion technology currently provides the best performance for your device. Compared with traditional battery technology, lithium-ion batteries are lighter, charge faster, last longer, and have a higher power density for more battery life.

To understand how your battery works so you can get the most out of it, see the Apple Lithium-ion Batteries website.

About charging the battery

👁 Battery icon with a lightning bolt indicates that the battery is charging.

The battery icon in the top-right corner of the status bar shows the battery level or charging status. When you’re syncing or using iPad, it may take longer to charge the battery.

If iPad is very low on power, it may display an image of a nearly depleted battery, indicating that it needs to charge for up to 10 minutes before you can use it. If iPad is extremely low on power when you begin to charge it, the display may be blank for up to 2 minutes before the low-battery image appears. See the Apple Support article If your iPad won’t charge.

Charge the battery

To charge your iPad battery, do one of the following:

  • Connect iPad to a power outlet using the included cable and power adapter. See Power adapter and charge cable.

    👁 iPad connected to the power adapter plugged into a power outlet.

  • Connect iPad and your computer with a cable.

    Make sure your computer is turned on—if iPad is connected to a computer that’s turned off, the battery may drain instead of charge. Look for 👁 the charging icon
    on the battery icon to make sure iPad is charging.

    If your Mac or Windows device doesn’t provide enough power to charge iPad, a Not Charging message appears in the status bar.

    Note: Don’t try to charge your iPad by connecting it to your keyboard, unless your keyboard has a high-power USB port.

Connecting iPad to a power outlet can start an iCloud backup. See Back up iPad.

WARNING: If you suspect there may be liquid in the charging port of iPad, don’t plug the charging cable into it. For information about exposure to liquid, and other important safety information about the battery and charging iPad, see Important safety information for iPad.

Improve charging speed

If your iPad is charging slowly, you’ll see a Slow Charger message in Settings 👁 Image
> Battery. This message appears when your iPad supports fast charging but the connected charger isn’t capable of delivering optimal power.

Charging might take longer than expected if you’re using a wired charger that provides 7.5 watts or less.

👁 The charging information card in iPad Battery settings. The card shows the battery at 80% and indicates it’s connected to a “Slow Charger.”

Understand charging behavior

iPad manages how it charges to help preserve long-term battery health. Here’s what happens when you charge:

  • Fast charging up to 80%: iPad charges quickly until the battery reaches about 80%.

  • Trickle charging after 80%: Charging slows to reduce battery stress and limit heat. This final stage helps maintain battery lifespan.

  • Temperature: Charging may pause temporarily while in extreme temperature conditions, and will resume once the battery’s temperature returns to its normal operating range.

These protections happen automatically and don’t require any changes to your settings.

About charge cycles and battery lifespan

The capacity of any type of battery will diminish after a certain amount of recharging. With lithium-ion batteries, the capacity diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle. Apple lithium-ion batteries work in charge cycles and retain about 80% of its original capacity for a high number of charge cycles, depending on the product.

A charge cycle happens when you use a total of 100% of your battery’s capacity,* even if it’s not all at once. For example, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle.

Battery life and charge cycles vary with use and settings. The iPad battery should be serviced or recycled by Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. See the Battery Service and Recycling website.

To understand how your battery works so you can get the most out of it, see the Apple Lithium-ion Batteries website.

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